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- Sarah Belanger, a member of the University's America Reads Tutoring Corps, Created an Excellent Strategy to Help Her Students Learn the Differences between Verbs and Nouns.
- America Learns is distributing Belanger's strategy to tutors, mentors, teachers and parents worldwide via e-mail and via the Network Superstars website, http://networksuperstars.net.

Past News Releases

Sarah Belanger, a University of Michigan junior, is being recognized this month by America Learns as the organization's February 2009 America Learns Network Superstar. America Learns Network Superstars are celebrated monthly for creating innovative strategies that help volunteer tutoring, mentoring and leadership development programs excel.

REASONS FOR THE RECOGNITION
America Learns is recognizing Belanger for a tutoring strategy she created while serving with the University of Michigan America Reads Tutoring Corps (America Reads). America Reads gives University of Michigan students who are eligible for the Federal Work/Study Program an opportunity to earn money by tutoring students who are struggling with learning to read.

ABOUT THE STRATEGY
Belanger's strategy, called "Verb and Noun Charades", provides students with an engaging way to learn the differences between verbs and nouns.

While working with her students, she found that simply reviewing that "verbs are action words" and "nouns are people, places or things" wasn't cutting it. So Belanger decided to adapt the classic game of charades to help her students understand the differences between verbs and nouns.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE STRATEGY
"Sarah created a terrific strategy for a common challenge," said Gary Kosman, Founder and CEO, America Learns. "We know that Sarah's 'Verb and Noun Charades' strategy will be useful to the tutors, mentors and student teachers we serve."

"Sarah created a terrific strategy for a common challenge," said Gary Kosman, Founder and CEO, America Learns. "We know that Sarah's 'Verb and Noun Charades' strategy will be useful to the tutors, mentors and student teachers we serve."

About The University of Michigan America Reads Tutoring Corps
In the Fall of 1997, the University of Michigan's Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, its Office of Financial Aid, and its School of Education joined forces to form the University of Michigan America Reads Tutoring Corps. America Reads is committed to having all children reading well and independently by the end of third grade. By recruiting University of Michigan students to serve as tutors, America Reads gets students excited about reading, improves students' literacy skills, provides greater access to books and opportunities for reading with an adult, and supports literacy development at home. Beginning in September 2005 America Reads expanded from approximately 100 to 200 tutors thanks to a grant from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to expand the program. Each year more than 600 children in area schools receive reading assistance from America Reads tutors. Learn more at http://www.umich.edu/~mserve/areads or by calling (734) 764-0577.

About America Learns, LLC:
Los Angeles-based America Learns is a global educational performance and accountability firm reaching more than 20,000 students worldwide. The company's flagship service, the America Learns Performance Measurement & Learning Network, helps organizations to simultaneously collect their educators and mentors' best practices from the field, share those strategies with peers as soon as they need them, and measure educators and mentors' performance. Organizations using its services include universities (e.g., Girls For A Change, Duke University, UC Berkeley, and the University of Michigan), community-based nonprofits, after-school programs, and school districts (e.g., the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the Minneapolis Public Schools). The company also creates and publishes high quality, meaningful, stress-free learning resources for children that are steeped in relevant research and practice. Learn more at http://www.americalearns.net or by calling 310-689-0542.